Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, Fairies attending'; OBERON behind unseen.

Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy1,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Bot. Where's Peas-blossom?

Peas. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.—Where's monsieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neif2, monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy

1 To coy, is to stroke or sooth with the hand. The behaviour of Titania on this occasion seems copied from that of the lady in Apuleius, lib. viii.

"That is fist. So in K. Henry IV. Part II. Pistol says: 'Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif.'

VOL. II.

BB

about the face: and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

Tita. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in musick: let us have the tongs and the bones 3.

Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas.

But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,
Gently entwist,—the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm *.

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

[They sleep.

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?

3 The old rough rustic music of the tongs. The folio has this stage direction: Musicke Tongs, Rurall Music.'

4 Steevens says, what Shakspeare seems to mean is this— So the woodbine, i. e. the sweet honeysuckle doth gently entwist the barky fingers of the elm, and so doth the female ivy enring the same fingers. Mr. Gifford observes that these lines may be illustrated by a passage in Ben Jonson's Vision of Delight:

The woodbine of Shakspeare (he remarks) is the blue bind-weed of Jonson. In many of our counties the woodbine is still the name of the great convolvulus.'

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet savours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,.
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he awaking when the other 5 do,
May all to Athens back again repair;
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou wast wont to be.

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

See, as thou wast wont to see:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

5 This was the phraseology of the time. So in K. Henry IV. Part I.-' and unbound the rest, and then came in the other.'

6 Dian's bud is the bud of the Agnus Castus, or Chaste Tree. 'The vertue of this hearbe is, that he will kepe man and woman chaste.' Macer's Herbal, by Lynacre, b. 1. no date. Cupid's flower is the Viola tricolor, or Love in Idleness.

Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now

!

Obe. Silence, awhile.-Robin, take off this head.Titania, musick call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense. Tita. Musick, ho! musick: such as charmeth sleep.

Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, musick. [Still musick.] Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

Puck. Fairy king, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad7,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals on the ground.

[Exeunt.

[Horns sound within.

7 Sad here signifies only grave, serious.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester;-
For now our observation is perform'd 8:
And since we have the vaward 9 of the day,
My love shall hear the musick of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:

Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding 10; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew'd 11, so sanded 12; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,

8 i. e. the honours due to the morning of May. So in a former scene to do observance to a morn of May.'

9 Forepart.

10 Chiding means here the cry of hounds. To chide is used sometimes for to sound, or make a noise without any reference to scolding. So in K. Henry VIII.:

'As doth a rock against the chiding flood.'

And in the 22d Book of Drayton's Polyolbion :

11 The flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound. 12 Sanded means of a sandy colour, which is one of the true denotements of a blood-hound.